<p>As for the issue of whether or not a LAC gets boring after a few years, I think it really depends on the person and the school. Students at LACs do study abroad at a much higher rate than in non-LACs. There are lots of reasons for this (for example, LACs don’t offer engineering and engineers frequently find it difficult to fit study abroad into their courseloads) - but the fact remains that in Junior year, many LAC students decide it’s time to explore another culture. Students at urban LACs probably have a somewhat different experience than those at rural LACs - at the former, you can move out into the community if you want to be away from school, but those who chose rural LACs often do so because they like and want the experience of a close knit community, so there’s quite a bit of self-selection going on. Finally, even at a small LAC, a quarter of the class graduates every year and leaves, while a quarter of the class arrives as freshman, so I guess it’s possible to have dated everyone you are interested in, but you’re going to be plenty busy every fall when the new class arrives.</p>
<p>S attended a rural LAC and, by the middle of his senior year, he was ready to move on. Now that he’s gone, he is missing ‘his’ people a lot, and looking forward to returning to grad school where he will, once again, be part of a tight knit community.</p>